Flavius Luteus Scaevola
"Picking up a book at random, I sat down in the Emperor's library to read. I read it and reread it, and wept and laughed and trembled with a horror which at times assails me yet. I pray the gods will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with its beautiful stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth - a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow. The ambition of Tolumvire and of Brennen pales before that which cannot rest until it seizes the minds of men and controls even their unborn thoughts.” -Flavius Luteus Scaevola History The son of Flavius Luteus, a nobleman in the Final Empire and an elven woman named Meira Adwarin, both of Scaevola's parents became outcasts and pariahs for their tryst. Flavius Luteus the Elder, having nothing to lose, joined Jotunheim's Rebellion as a military officer, and died bravely in battle. After giving birth to her son, Scaevola's mother fled the rebellion to return to her homeland, leaving him behind. She would never seen or heard from again. The young Flavius would grow up around the rebels, who would move him to the growing city of Arendur, which Jotunheim considered a better home for a child than a war camp. A witness to the empire's birth, Scaevola would come of age during the Demon Wars, and be drafted into the Arendurian Army, seeing action. He and his unit were on patrol during the destruction of Oranor, sparing him from certain death. Scaevola would live for a short period of time in Forester's Town, before rejoining his former unit and forming a mercenary company known as the Wyrms of the Mountain. During this time, Scaevola traveled from one elven community to another, trying to find his mother, without success. He made many lasting friendships among the elves, and for many years considered settling down among them. The return of the Illuminated and the foundation of New Arendur shattered those plans, and prompted his return. Personality Flavius Luteus Scaevola is a man who, believing himself rootless, did violence to all that he had. Offered a chance to start anew among his mother's kind, the wood elves, he would instead join their oppressor to make war on them. A war hero in the Arendurian Army, he would abandon his homeland's ideals and sell out his country to a foreign power. A man committed to the principles of peace and equality, he channeled his outrage to play the part of the demagogue, stoking hatred and division to fan the flames of war. A man who fundamentally distrusted power, he would spill the blood of his countrymen in a grim quest to rule over them. A man who hated magic and the arcane, he would make a covenant with a great old one, wielding its power with wild abandon and striking down those who opposed him. Scaevola's Arendur is a a just and safe nation for those who buy into its premise, certainly. He is a reasonable man behind the mask of a demagogue, and while he believes that the Reich must one day fall, he is not in a hurry to bring that about. He is mad and damned, however, a true terror to anyone who believes in mankind's claim to a fate of its own. The mask he wears - the man he pretends to be - is that of someone who cares. Scaevola lost any regard for his life or the world the day he opened the King in Yellow. As a result of a crippling childhood stutter, Scaevola is shy and reserved, preferring to utter short, bland remarks. With prepared speeches, he can temporarily overcome his impediment. Even his anger across as forced and affected for fear of stumbling over his words. Flavius Luteus Scaevola's once wished for New Arendur to prosper. His marriage to Charlotte Bellerose was the first time he tried to seek happiness in the world. The King tested his faith by asking him to sacrifice her, prompting him to beg the King to accept his daughter instead. For his lack of faith, the King struck his wife down with a wasting illness. Around that time, he had his familiar severed from him to free himself from the King. He now realizes that the King in Yellow is an agent of annihilation, and welcomes the end of the Dream of the Old Ones. And yet, Scaevola is a remnant of a forgotten era. A survivor of a perished generation. The Arendurian leaders were reactions to the circumstances they were born in. The generation that produced the magocracy of New Arendur - Tan Blackhand, Voidwatcher, and Grundelthum Sunder - were forged in the choking grasp of Monopoly's Final Empire, crushed beneath the heel of fallen heroes and mind-slavery. Revolutionaries at heart, they believed in structure and system, in meritocracy and rule of law, but were never able to shed the rigid and authoritarian mindset of their past. They never stopped believing in the cult of the hero and the supremacy of the mage. It was their rule that produced the generation that would head the Church, one that remembers how their proud autocrats hoarded their right to rule and stifled their lessers under the trappings of reason and contrived tradition. Small wonder that they would yearn to be part of something greater than themselves, to submit not to the authority of man, but to god. Scaevola is a part of something else entirely. He is child of Arendur, born in the empire's eight year reign. His generation perished in that city; almost no children were counted among the survivors. Those that did are now long dead. Scaevola remembers hope. He remembers the chaotic, exhilarating struggle to survive against the odds; the shared loss, the war of all against all as the newly made Arendurians tried to forge a new identity. He remembers the partisans and the rebels, the citizens council and the rugged pioneers, the industrialists and the robber barons. He remembers being a child witnessing Tolumvire's defiance of fate, but not the circumstances that inspired it. And he remembers how it was all for naught. How it was all in vain. Unlike the generation before him, he was not a proponent of Arendurian exceptionalism, but one of its few surviving victims. Small wonder that he would destroy even the memory of those times. Scaevola does not even believe there is any lesson to be learned from them. War of the Philosopher-Kings Able to gain employ as an officer due to his history, Scaevola and his men were initially assigned on peace-keeping missions against the local wood elves, who resented their Arendurian overloads. Though he harbored doubts about warring with his kin, he established a reputation as an immensely talented, charismatic, and fearless soldier. At the start of the War of the Philosopher-Kings, Scaevola was deployed to Forester's Town to defend against the Final Empire. Scaevola was chosen for a daunting mission - the assassination of Brennen of Alara. Under the pretense of peace negotiations, Scaevola was presented as the Arendurian ambassador, where he met with the Phoenix Emperor outside Forester's Town. On cue, he drew a deishorak named Oré Drassig, and ran Brennen through the heart. The Emperor cried out, but did not fall, instead becoming wreathed with flames that burned hot yet did not consume him. Even the blood that spilled from his seemingly mortal wound was set alight, turning to ash. Scaevola did not flinch, keeping his hand on the dagger and running it through to the hilt. Later, as he recovered, he would describe that what kept him from feeling the agony of the fire was the feeling of the Emperor's heartbeat through the blade. Eventually, he could not longer hold the dagger, not for lack of courage or desire, but because his charred hand went limp. As Scaevola fell to the ground in agony, Brennen withdrew the dagger, and the flames wreathing him faded away. Standing there in a cloud of ashes, the Emperor of the Final Empire hailed Scaevola's courage, and let him go free. He excoriated Arendur for its perfidy, and declared that he would raze Forester's Town to ground, kick-starting the Battle of Forester's Town. But none of this was of any import to Scaevola. His act of courage was applauded, and he won the name Scaevola - left handed. Many began to compare him to Tan Blackhand, who similarly had a malformed right hand. Scaevola spent much of the war convalescing from the hand injury, which never fully healed. Once the wound had stabilized, he was assigned a new mission - leading the team that was sent to explore the ruins of the Northern Dome. He found it abandoned and eerily silent, a ghost city filled with the graves of mages and Hexenjägers side by side. In the dome itself, he found a set of three curious relics - a mask, a book, and an amulet amongst Emperor Brennen's belongings, unearthed from deep beneath the city. Scaevola took them back to the Illuminated, but on the way, read the first half of the book, which was a play entitled the King in Yellow. Upon his return, Scaevola was granted an honorable discharge from the army. He had already shown a hesitance to fight his kindred elves, and been exposed to what the Illuminated knew to be dangerous artifacts. Unwilling to fight for the mages any further, Scaevola grew to hate the leaders of Arendur, who he blamed for years of war and suffering. His mind altered and warped by his contact with the items, he became a swift convert to the worship of the King in Yellow. Determined to summon the great old one to the world and use his power to destroy the Tower of the Illuminated, he founded a political party, the Carcosai, to propel him for a quixotic Senate run for the Slums of New Arendur. His entry on the political stage came with a seminal novel, Fear and Loathing in New Arendur: A Journey to the Savage Heart of the War of the Philosopher-Kings. He would win a vocal minority of popular support among his constituency - indigenous people, veterans, rebels, the disenfranchised, those distrustful of magic, and opponents to the war. Maintaining close links to the rebellion, Scaevola would direct his men to secretly contact the Reich, asking for their help securing the mask, book, and amulet that he knew lay in the vaults of the Illuminated. In return, he would use them to destroy the Tower of the Illuminated and deliver New Arendur to the hands of the Reich. The Reich would accept his offer, dispatching Khamsa, Aldia, Nephenee, and Karai. The heist would emerge as a failure, with only the book falling into Scaevola's hands, the amulet remaining in the hands of the Illuminated, and the mask - the item he truly needed to summon the King - in the hands of Khamsa. His run for Senate would fail, and the War of the Philosopher-Kings would end without any meaningful change in New Arendur. And yet, it was only the beginning. After the War "Indeed it is hard to grasp why our age hasn't already given birth, by spontaneous generation, to its hero, that demon who will stage without scruple that horrifying play that reduces the whole age to laughter and to unconsciousness of the fact that it is laughing at itself?" -Grundelthum Sunder Scaevola would remain in hiding for the rest of New Arendur's existence as a sovereign nation. Upon the arrival of the Reich, he would betray his country and sneak the Hexenjägers into the city. In return, he was appointed the Pontifex Maximus of the Senate, which was composed of elected individuals from the Carcosai. Scaevola would mastermind the Second Northern Expedition, with the full intention of allowing Special Agent Shorden Hiem - the current bearer of the Pallid Mask - to become the vessel for the King in Yellow. With the help of Theresa and Maria Starkweather, Scaevola would found the Church of Transcendental Theosophy. After the end of martial government, a plebiscite was held to determine whether or not the Senate should be reinstated. The people resoundingly voted no, and the Church took full control of the levers of power. The character of the church was originally civil in appearance, with few overt references to the King in Yellow. Nonetheless, the New Arendurians yearned for a spirituality which was missing in their lives; a tradition they could hold on to. The heroes of Old Arendur - Tolumvire and his brethren - were taboo, having been practitioners of witchcraft. Scaevola took several steps to change the culture of the city. He ordered that Tolumvire, Tan Blackhand, and the Illuminated be subject to damnatio memoriae; their names stricken from all records. He spoke in terms of a cultural redemption and reawakening, with the conquest at the hands of the Reich being necessary to purge the twin Arendurian demons of witchcraft and secularism. He introduced the more heavily religious aspects of the Church without preamble, at first exhorting and then requiring the open worship of the King in Yellow. This was greeted at first with confusion, then bemusement, then resignation, and finally acquiescence. Two generations later, and few living would even remembered a different way of life, much less cared. The final step was a heavy revision to the Constitution of New Republic, in which Scaevola took the original founding document drafted by Tolumvire, and edited it himself. After clearing it with the Office of the Gauleiter, he presented it to the New Arendurians as his own - although of course, they recognized its historical significance, yet were forbidden by law and custom to speak about it. In time, it was accepted, and the rule of Flavius Luteus Scaevola became all the more unquestioned and absolute. Twenty years into his reign, Scaevola would grow enamored with and marry a half-elven woman from a wealthy merchant family, named Charlotte Bellerose. The wedding was a private affair, and Lady Bellerose, as she was called, shunned public life and knew little about the Great Old Ones. After giving birth to their only child, Cassilda Lucretia Scaevola, she would grow ill and suddenly die. Observers would note that the best part of Scaevola died with his wife. He would never re-marry. The truth of the matter was that after his marriage, the King in Yellow demanded that Scaevola offer him his wife as his bride. Scaevola, who did not believe that the King would return his wife by virtue of the absurd, could not make the movements of faith. He begged for a reprieve, offering the King his unborn daughter instead. The King agreed, but cursed Charlotte so that she would die birthing their daughter Cassilda. Not long afterward, Scaevola would grow interested in the experiments of St. Franz's College and demand that the scholars their severed his familiar from him. The act would permanently damage his soul, unshackling Scaevola from his duty to his patron. At some point after the war, a company of Janissary Frontier Troopers - the Claws of Conquest - fled their crumbling country and made a journey to find a new home. Only twenty of the original fifty survived, and made it to New Arendur. Their leader at the time decided that they would scorn the worship of the Maker, and serve the King in Yellow instead. Scaevola magnanimously allowed them to serve as his personal guard; they are now known as the Aglazderian Guard. None of their original members yet live, but every time the twenty of them lose a member, they induct a new member following their ancient traditions, even giving them an Aglazderian name. They serve other security purposes; it is rare for more than two to be present by Scaevola's side at any given time. Their current leader, Captain Amani, is one of Scaevola's closest confidants are personal bodyguard. Commemoration Speech Thank you for being here today. I am deeply honored to stand with you, commemorating the battle that was fought on the soil of this very town half a century ago. Since then, we have faced momentous change and overcame insurmountable threats. Many of you have shed blood and tears for New Arendur, or know a loved one who has paid the ultimate price. I bow to you. I acknowledge your sacrifices. You are the mortar and brick of our nation. I remember the Battle of Forester’s Town as one who fought in it. Fellow veterans, I remember your faces! I see you all, and take comfort in the brotherhood of soldiers. It is a bond only we will know. There are things we can never forget, about which we do not speak. We have made a virtuous world for our children, so that they may live ignorant of the mistakes of the past, free of the burden of history. After the battle, we left civilization behind. The scribblers were closing in on all sides. The clerks with their purple tongues and darting eyes, their shuffling feet and sloped shoulders, their bloodless lists. Oh, measure it all out! Acceptable levels of misery and suffering! Acceptable? Who dares to say any level is acceptable? What sort of mind thinks that?” Scripture tells us that “the important message is that we are all descended from the Gods”, and the King in Yellow can come into play now. The face of He Who Should Not be Named is portrayed to us as the face of a human-like Daemon, so should we assume by this that if we are made in the image of God, then it is in the image of that God of human hierarchy? In this statement then, if the King would be the god of hierarchy on whatever level, that He is represented as such, then are the other Gods somewhat more weird? “The most important aspect of this sovereignty”, the scripture tells us, “is our personal responsibility for all conditional aspects of our lives.” Of the hundreds of men and women who have died in Arendurian military service, the vast majority are “everyday heroes.” They are brothers and sisters who fought alongside us, who have left unfillable holes in families, communities, and hearts across this country. Their friendships, their bravery, and their commitment to duty will never be lost. As long as we continue to honor them with our actions and remember their sacrifices, they will never be forgotten. No matter what obstacles we must overcome, we will endure. We will always endure. That is who we are as a people, long-suffering and imperiled by an uncertain future, but always able to count on our resilience. May we ever know victory. May fate be ever in our favor. May our cause ever be just. Political Platform When Flavius Luteus Scaevola ran for the Senate, he ran as an explicit repudiation to the Illuminated, blaming them for the political ills in Arendur. His main political positions were as follows: * Returning the reigns of power to the people who originally made Arendur great - the farmers, the soldiers, the industrialists, the artisans, and the pioneers. The mages did not make Arendur, but stole it and subverted the spirit of the nation. * Reconciling with the indigenous Wood Elves and departing with factionalism. The mages are sowing hatred and division to stay in power. In reality, New Arendur is composed of one people, bound by unity of purpose, not blood. * Ending involvement in the War of the Philosopher-Kings. New Arendur has more in common with the other powers than the mages would have you believe. The War was fabricated by mages seeking arcane supremacy, and is of no benefit to the common man. * Calling for a religious and spiritual revival in New Arendur. The people have blinded themselves in their quest to rationalize everything. The mages, in their quest to understand and control all things, have lost the ability to become a part of something greater. In his speeches, Scaevola tended not to refer to the Illuminated by their name, but as "the mages." This was, he claimed, to deny them their self-righteous claim to enlightenment, but it was also to explicitly tie them to the other mages in the War of the Philosopher-Kings. Works * Fear and Loathing in New Arendur: A Journey to the Savage Heart of the War of the Philosopher-Kings * Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail in '25 * Encyclical No. 1: "On the Significance of Chaos as the Spiritual Heart of Our Worship" * Encyclical No. 2: "On the Primacy of the King in Yellow amongst Gods and Scripture" * Encyclical No. 3: “Cosmic Insight and the Suspension of Ethical Boundaries” * Encyclicals No. 4 - No. 22 * Battle of Forester's Town: A Play in Four Acts Category:Arendur Category:Four Tales Category:Mages Category:Carcosai Category:Church of Transcendental Theosophy Category:Warlocks Category:Half-Elves Category:Wyrms of the Mountain Category:Arendurian Army